Yesterday Opera announced plans to include the BitTorrent protocol in its Opera web browser. The pair signed an agreement allowing Opera to use the BitTorrent trademark and access the BitTorrent search engine from the browser's user interface.

Opera claim that integrating the technology will allow more efficient and quicker downloads of large files. A preview of the Opera 9 browser is expected to be released soon.

The BitTorrent service will be offered to Opera users in two ways. Users can search for torrent files in the browser's integrated search field, or, when a file has been selected, Opera's Transfer Manager feature will handle the download. Separate software will no longer be needed to search and download content.